REMEMBER ME
by Isilwe
Summary: Six years have passed. Chihiro holds no memory of Haku, and Haku quietly accepts the harsh truth. With Rin and Kamajii's prodding, will Haku keep his promise? Will Chihiro remember him?


REMEMBER ME

_A/N: After the events in _Spirited Away_, Chihiro and her parents returned to the human world with no recollection of what had happened. The only tokens left of the adventure were Zeniba's purple hair band and her reformed character._ _This story occurs six years later, with Chihiro still without a shred of memory. _

_Also, I'll use the Japanese spelling for the names (being a stickler for perfection and all) so Lin will be Rin, Boh will be Bou etc. Any new Japanese names that have significance will be clarified at the end of each chapter. Enjoy._

* * *

_GAMBLE ON MEMORY_

"Chihiro! Chihiro! Wake up already, you're going to be late for school! Geez, I can't believe I still have to wake you up even though you are in high school!" Yuuko Ogino shook her slumbering daughter.

"Mom…" Sixteen-year old Chihiro groaned. "Five more minutes…" She snuggled deeper into her coverlet.

Growing impatient, her mother took away her coverlet. "Get up right now, young lady, or you'll get no pocket money next week!"

"All right, all right. I'm up." Chihiro got up and sleep-walked into the closed bathroom door, earning her a beautiful bump on her forehead.

"What's the point of studying so late into the night if you snooze right through school the next day?" Her mother chided, hiding her amusement.

"Coffee…" Chihiro mumbled as she brushed her teeth, eyes still half-closed in her exhaustion.

Her mother smiled as she went into the kitchen to prepare her daughter's request.

* * *

Chihiro dashed for all she was worth and opened the classroom door with an all-mighty slam. "Did I make it?!" She asked, breathless. 

Her best friend, Rumi, grinned. "Safe!"

"Whew!" Chihiro sank onto the floor, mentally thanking the heavens. "I'm in time for the history exam!"

"You won't be if you continuing sitting in the hallway." Her teacher informed her from behind. Chihiro got up with a squeak and scrambled to her seat, making the class laugh at her antics.

* * *

'_Will we see each other again?'_

'_Yes, we will.'_

'_Promise?' She could see gentleness in those emerald green eyes._

'_Promise. Now, go. And don't look back.' A gentle hand guided her down the steps, their hands lingered in each others' grasp for a second before separating. _

_A flash of white… silvery scales and turquoise fur…?_

"Oi! Chihiro! Wake up!" Rumi hissed and prodded her friend.

Chihiro was sprawled over her desk, sleeping with her mouth open on the history paper she had completed in record time, her long auburn hair covering her face. In her haste to get to school, Chihiro didn't tie up her hair with her favorite purple hair band. The teacher was nearing them collecting their papers and Rumi prodded her again, "Wake up, sleepy head!"

Chihiro cracked an eye open, groggily pushed herself up from the table and tried to rub the sleep from her eyes as the teacher collected her paper. Chihiro paused, her hands at her face, trying to remember the dream she had, but she couldn't recall it. She knew it was a dream she saw countless of times ever since she moved here, but no matter how she tried, she could not piece the dream back together.

"What did you do yesterday to nearly get yourself into a coma like that?" Rumi asked.

"Burning the midnight oil." Chihiro stifled a yawn.

Rumi grinned. "No problems again this time?"

Chihiro beamed and did a victory sign. "No sweat. You aren't taking my spot this term."

Rumi caught her in a head-lock. "Oh yeah? Just wait and see!"

"Ow ow ow ow! Leggo!" Chihiro winced. "I surrender!" Rumi released her hold and Chihiro straightened, rubbing the back of her neck. When Chihiro's parents decided to move, she had thought that she might never see her best friend again. But just a few months after she had left, Rumi sent a letter to her, informing her that her own father had been posted to the same area Chihiro's father was working at, so her family had to move to where Chihiro was living. And so here Rumi was, her best friend ever since they were seven.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Rumi asked when she noticed Chihiro's nostalgic smile.

"Do you realize that in a year's time, we'd have been friends for a decade?" Chihiro mused.

"I feel old." Rumi lamented.

Chihiro laughed as she shouldered her bag, ready to leave. "You do sound like an old maid."

Rumi cracked her knuckles as she approached Chihiro. "Ready for another head-lock?"

Chihiro backed away. "Ah ha ha… no, thank you."

* * *

"Hello? Earth to Chihiro?" Rumi waved a hand in front of her friend's face. 

Chihiro snapped back to reality. "Huh? What?"

"For goodness sakes, Chihiro, don't invite me out for ice-cream and end up day-dreaming all on your own!" Rumi complained.

"Sorry Rumi. I was just… thinking." Chihiro looked into the bowl of chocolate chip mint ice-cream. _Green fur… Ash black hair…_

"About what? A crush?" Her friend suggested.

Chihiro rolled her eyes. This is the result you get when you have a friend who had some bimbo traits. "No. Have you ever had a feeling like you forgot something really, really important to you?"

"Hmm… If it was really that important, would you have forgotten it in the first place?" Rumi countered.

"Well, maybe like amnesia or something. I keep getting this feeling like I have forgotten a lot of important memories, places, people…" Chihiro's voice trailed off.

"What, you had amnesia?" Rumi asked.

"No! Ah, well, never mind, it's probably nothing." Chihiro concentrated on eating her melting ice cream.

"You know, like the way you sometimes lose a trinket that you treasure, and search the whole house for it and can never find it, but sooner or later it turns up? I'm sure it'll all come back to you. Don't worry." Rumi smiled.

Chihiro returned Rumi's smile, a little comforted. "Thanks."

"So!" Rumi rested her chin on her palm. "I heard Hayashi from the next class is smitten with you…"

Chihiro groaned. Not more bimbo talk…

* * *

"Haku!" Kamajii beamed with pleasure as a young man donning a white kimono and teal-colored hakama entered the boiler room from the back door. "What a surprise!" 

"Kamajii." The river spirit bowed his head slightly as a gesture of respect. "How have you been?"

"Same old. GET-BACK-TO WORK-YOU-SKIVING-SOOTBALLS!" The old man bellowed at the susuwatari who had gathered around Haku in curiosity. "Sorry," Kamajii apologized as he took a swig of water from his kettle. "Ah, that's better. You should come see us more often, Haku." He scolded, wagging a finger at the young man while never once looking up from his herb grinder. "You haven't been by much ever since you stopped working for Yubaba. I get lonely with just these runts here." He absently waved one of his many hands at the susuwatari.

Haku smiled. "The people here don't like me much, there isn't a reason for me too come by too often. It'll ruin their mood."

Kamajii scowled. "What nonsense are you talking about? Rin was just saying that she was planning to sock you one the next time you come by. It has been almost three years since the last time we saw you!"

The little door slid open and the said person climbed through it. "Meal time!" She called out as she slid the door closed. "Haku!" Rin exclaimed, dropping Kamajii's rice bowl.

"Whoa!" Kamajii deftly caught the bowl. "Oi Rin! That's my dinner you are dropping on the floor you know?"

Rin didn't hear Kamajii. She strode to Haku, grabbed his kimono, pulled him down and rammed her fist onto the top of his skull. "That is for disappearing on us for three years!"

Haku rubbed his throbbing head. "I get it, Rin, you didn't have to hit me."

Kamajii cackled. "Told you she was going to sock you one."

"Really!" Rin released Haku's kimono and stood back to take a good look at him. "Three years! What kind of friend vanishes like that? Hmm…" She squinted at the young man. "I see you decided to change your image."

Uneasy under Rin's scrutiny, Haku smoothed out his clothes. "I guess I got tired of looking like a boy."

"Heh…" Rin smirked and rubbed her chin wistfully as she threw kompeito out for the susuwatari. "It _has _been six years since Sen left. She must be quite a young woman by now."

A slight tinge of pink crept into Haku's cheeks. "That's not the reason I changed into this form!" He answered hotly.

Rin grinned. "I never said it was. But you sure have a very interesting reaction, right Kamajii?"

The old man managed a chortle with rice stuffed mouth.

Haku inwardly groaned. This is one of the many reasons he avoided the bathhouse like a plague. Rin never knew when to ease up on her teasing and together with Kamajii, they made a pair more persistent and irritating then a horde of mosquitoes on a sweltering summer night.

"So, Haku," Rin emptied the bucket of kompeito on the susuwatari. "Have you been to see Sen yet?"

Haku watched the little soot balls collect the multi-colored candy, squealing as they did. "No."

Rin frowned. "Not even once?"

"No."

Rin flung the empty bucket at Haku. "Are you an idiot?" She hollered.

Haku, expecting something like that, dodged the flying wooden pail easily and it landed on some unsuspecting susuwatari, revealing them to be flattened as it rolled away.

"Why didn't you go see her? I can't believe you are such a hopeless case. And to think during her stay here, Sen kept going on about you." Rin ranted.

"It doesn't matter anymore, Rin." Haku answered quietly. "She doesn't remember anything. It's like that for all humans who come into the spirit world. So it really doesn't matter whether I go and see her or not. She won't remember me and I think it's better for her to continue with her normal life."

Haku's confession caused a momentary silence; the only occasional interruption was by Kamajii's chopsticks clicking against the bowl as he ate.

"Kamajii." Rin broke the silence first. "Hold me." Kamajii complied; two of his arms snaked out and held the long-haired spirit by her shoulders.

"You idiotic pipsqueak! You hopeless lizard! You complete numbskull! Go and drown yourself in a river! Wait, you are a river spirit. I take that back. Go and toss yourself off a mountain! Wait, you can fly… Argh, just go and hang yourself or something!" Rin raved as she attempted to launch herself at the bewildered Haku. Lucky for the river spirit, Kamajii didn't break his grip on Rin.

Starting to lose his composure, Haku asked irritably. "What do you suggest then? Walk up to her house, knock on her door and expect her to remember me upon seeing my face?"

Rin stopped her tirade and an evil glint lit up in her eyes as she smiled. Haku held his forehead in his palm. "I can't believe I said that."

"Well you did." Rin beamed. "So, I take it you are going to see Sen then?"

"No. Face it Rin, which normal human wouldn't mind seeing a river spirit who is also has a dragon form?" Haku asked numbly, as if he asked himself the same question a million times.

"Sen is not normal." Rin laughed. "She's the strangest girl I ever knew. Believe me, Haku, if Sen is still the same girl she was, when she recalls everything, she'll be jumping all over you."

"That's my grand-daughter you are insulting, Rin." Kamajii chipped in. Rin waved him to be quiet.

"When she recalls." Haku pointed out. "She _won't _recall."

"Love conquers all!" Kamajii declared to no-one in particular, waving the fried shrimp with his chopsticks.

"Gah! Stop being such a pessimist. You don't have a single romantic bone in that body of yours." Rin snapped at the young man. "Since you are so sure of yourself, let's have a bet then."

Slightly miffed at Rin's insult at Haku's apparent lack of romance, he had a good mind to leave right there and then. But he still had to complete the task Zeniba had sent him here for and grudgingly decided to hear Rin out. "What bet?"

"I'll bet you ten, no, _fifty_ roasted newts that Sen will remember you when she sees you." Rin said confidently.

Haku knew he'd never hear the end of this if he did not carry out the bet so he unwillingly obliged. "Fine. I'll tell you the results."

"Excellent!" Rin picked up the pail and collected Kamajii's empty bowl. "I'll be waiting for my newts, Haku!" She said cheerily and left the boiler room.

Haku and Kamajii looked at each other for a moment. "You think you'll be getting those fifty newts?" Kamajii asked, unable to hide his amusement.

"Yes." Haku answered, fatigue starting to sink in. "And I don't even _like_ newts."

* * *

_Did you guys like it? If you did (or didn't) please spare me a review! Feedback inspires me to continuing writing. I apologize for any out of character(ness). [It is really hard to write Haku, he didn't have much of screen-time for me to write accurately even after watching Spirited Away ten times. Yes, I'm a perfectionist. _

_kompeito - the rainbow colored star-like thingys Rin fed the sootballs in the movie. Those are real candies, readily available in your candy store/japanese snack shops. _

_susuwatari - the japanese name for the sootballs. _

_kimono - no, not the flowery version the women wear. Kimono is a word used for Japanese wear in GENERAL._

_hakama - pleated trousers usually made of silk, worn by both men and women, usually during sports like kendo, archery, the like. _


End file.
